This application seeks support for the preparation and publication of a monographic history of physiology in the United States from c. 1870 to c. 1940. Physiology has not yet received systematic attention from historians of American science, whose disciplinary studies have thus far focused chiefly on physics and genetics. The proposed study would thus fill a major lacuna in the history of American science. It would combine biography with institutional and intellectual history to construct a profile of American experimental physiology from its origins as an "importer" of European institutional models and research traditions through the period when it achieved full parity, and in some areas preeminence, within the international physiological community. In seeking to explain this rapid rise of American physiology, attention would be paid to the full range of contributing factors, including funding levels, institutional arrangements, and the intellectual "style" of American physiology. Consideration would also be given to the relationship of physiology to medical education and medical practice in the United States. It is hoped that the resulting monograph would be of particular value in connection with the forthcoming centennial activities of the American Physiological Society, culminating in the Society's annual meeting of 1987.